Britain's offshore secrets exposed

The revelations from the Paradise Papers, a leak of more than 13 million documents combed over by nearly 100 media groups, has stunned the world and shone a light on the financial affairs of the wealthy and powerful.

If you missed the two special BBC Panorama episodes which laid bare many of the biggest stories from the leak, you can still catch it on iPlayer.

Prince's climate-change views 'well known'

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

A bit more on the revelation from the Paradise Papers that Prince Charles campaigned to alter climate-change agreements without disclosing his private estate had an offshore financial interest in what he was promoting.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for the Prince denied that Charles had spoken out
on the climate-change deals in order to benefit financially.

"The Prince has never chosen to speak out on a topic simply because of a
company that The Duchy may have invested in," he said.
"In the case of climate change his views are well-known, indeed he has been
warning of the threat of global warming to our environment for over 30 years."

The spokesman added that carbon markets were just one of many strategies
Charles had championed since the 1990s to try and slow the pace of climate change.

BBC correspondent Kevin Connolly says that if European finance ministers are going to pull together a list of tax havens and companies who are avoiding tax (see our post at 17.03), they must be prepared to act on it.

He told the BBC News Channel: "There are obvious targets - the usual suspects sometimes
referred to in this sort of debate like those small Caribbean islands, like Panama and like other countries
like that where large amount of financial business are transacted, which are not related to the local
economy.

"It is one thing to produce a blacklist - pretty much anyone can do that - there is a huge question then about what you do
to those blacklisted companies and of course for the EU in particular, there are also issues over the tax arrangements that some member states have
made."

Isle of Man 'responsible for own fiscal matters'

House of Commons

Parliament

HoCCopyright: HoC

Financial Secretary to the Treasury Mel Stride responds to the concerns outlined by Dame Margaret Hodge, paying tribute to her as a "determined campaigner".

He says the government takes all allegations of tax avoidance and evasion "very seriously". He points out that the Isle of Man has "separate democratic institutions responsible for their own fiscal matters".

Mr Stride notes that the British Crown Dependency is conducting a review of VAT and the importation of aircraft, which he welcomes.

He further observes that journalists have not turned over details of the Paradise Papers requested by HM Revenue and Customs.

UK 'subsidising tax haven'

House of Commons

Parliament

HoCCopyright: HoC

The Isle of Man's low-tax system has come under intense scrutiny following revelations in the Paradise Papers documents.

Dame Margaret Hodge calls on the government to publish details of a formula which sees the UK government paying the island for the VAT it should generate, even if that's not the amount that's collected.

She tells parliament that the payments of about £300m a year "support and subsidise it as a tax haven".

'Poor oversight tarnished Queen's reputation'

Dame Margaret Hodge says she's in "no doubt the Queen was as appalled as the rest of us" at discovering her money was invested offshore.

The Paradise Papers showed that the Duchy of Lancaster, which provides the Queen with an income, held about £10m in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.

"With proper transparency of the Duchy of Lancaster's affairs this would never have happened.

"If Treasury had properly monitored the financial affairs of the Duchy, the Queen's reputation would not have been tarnished," Dame Margaret says in the House of Commons.

She adds: "The fact that the Queen's financial advisers saw nothing wrong with investing offshore in dodgy companies shows how deeply entrenched and acceptable the practices of hiding wealth offshore and avoiding tax have become."

She goes on to say: "It must be completely obvious to us all that anybody who is found to have used artificial financial structures offshore simply to hide their wealth and avoid tax should not be awarded with an honour from the Queen.

"Lewis Hamilton should not receive a knighthood."

It recently emerged via the Paradise Papers documents that the Formula 1 champion avoided tax on his £16.5m luxury jet by importing it to the Isle of Man in 2013.

‘There's a serious conflict of interest’

Video content

A former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life has said Prince Charles' actions amounted to a serious conflict of interest.

Sir Alistair Graham says Prince Charles should be accountable to public scrutiny. The committee, which he chaired from 2003 to 2007, advises the prime minister on ethical standards across public life in England.

BBC Panorama has found that the Prince of Wales campaigned to alter climate-change agreements without disclosing his private estate had an offshore financial interest in what he was promoting

His private estate says the prince had no direct involvement in its investments.
A Clarence House spokesman said the prince had "certainly never chosen to speak out on a topic simply because of a company that it may have invested in".

'Reputation matters a lot' - Jersey tax expert

Ryan Morrison

BBC News Online

BBCCopyright: BBC

John Shenton, a Jersey tax expert, says the Paradise Papers story could harm the island's reputation. "There is nothing to suggest anybody has done anything wrong, anybody has done anything illegal or Jersey has done anything wrong," he said.

"What you have is a perception - it is hard to change perception - that something isn't right here.

"Reputation matters a lot and it is very difficult if somebody sullies your reputation, it is hard to get it back," he added.

The Paradise Papers contain 13m documents obtained from law firm Appleby and others. Appleby described it as an "illegal data breach" and as a hack.

One document revealed Apple registered as a tax resident of Jersey in 2015 after a law change in Ireland. Apple says they didn't transfer any money out of Ireland in 2015.